Roy Hodgson Returns To Bristol City As Interim Manager After Struber Sacking

Add as a preferred source on Google

Roy Hodgson has returned to management as interim head coach of Bristol City after Gerhard Struber's dismissal. The 78-year-old will lead the Robins in the Championship, beginning on Good Friday against Charlton Athletic, with City currently 16th in the table.

Struber was removed from his role on 27 March 2026 after a damaging sequence of results. Bristol City recorded only one win in nine league matches, failed to win the last six, and fell nine points off the Championship play-offs with seven games remaining.

Hodgson's return links back to the manager's first spell at Ashton Gate in 1982, which lasted four months and was a first job in English football. The meeting with Charlton Athletic on Good Friday will be Hodgson's first Bristol City match since April 1982, almost 44 years apart, a Football League record.

During that initial tenure, Hodgson oversaw a difficult run of results. The manager was in charge for 21 fixtures, recording three wins, five draws and 13 defeats, giving a win rate of 14.3%. The figures from that campaign appear below.

Hodgson has since admitted that those months at Ashton Gate were "nothing short of a disaster." Despite that assessment, the coach led clubs including Inter, Liverpool, Fulham and Blackburn Rovers, and managed Finland, England, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. Hodgson now stands 20 years older than Championship counterparts Chris Wilder and Phil Parkinson.

I have had great conversations with the board, and I am really excited by the opportunity to help until the end of the season, the former England manager told the club's media channels. We will get straight to work and look for a positive performance on Good Friday.

Before Struber's appointment in June, the team had been led by Liam Manning, who secured a play-off place last season before leaving to manage Norwich City. Under Struber, Bristol City struggled while dealing with defensive injuries, a combination that contributed to the slide down the Championship standings.

Hodgson now faces the task of steadying Bristol City over the final seven fixtures, starting against Charlton Athletic on Good Friday at Ashton Gate. With the club nine points outside the play-offs, performances during this interim spell are likely to influence both Hodgson's record-breaking return and City's planning beyond this season.